i remember having to get a really tall ladder for a us producer and bouncing a very thin service station rubber ball ( err.. remember them) from a very high height in a very live room and we sampled that with a wendell jr sampler or maybe into the ams delay i cannot recall which it was hard work whatever we did and it became the kick drum sound for a choirboys track ( james dale... off big bad noise.. i think ..? )

anybody else want to own up to replacing drums with "non " drums and getting a great or not so great sound ?current or historic - doesnt matter ..

Rick O'NeilI think we went to different schools togetherturtlerockmastering.comwe listen

Back in the 80's, after doing the Queensland covers circuit for 3-4 years, the band I was in came to Sydney to do "the" album, and become famous (ha ha). We rented this big old house in Neutral Bay that had a very old laundry in a corrugated sheet shed out the back that had the bowl of stainless steel sink bodged in where the copper used to be. I ran 40m mic leads from our jam room and had the drummer hit it with 5B sticks, the signal chain SM58 > Jands desk > DBX 163 > Akai S612 12 bit sampler. Awesome sound, think the intro to "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes.

I haven't thought of that sound for many years and yes it was triggered by the atari 612 running Steinberg Pro 24, along side the juno & the DX7, and yes I've still got it all, the juno106 needs 2 new DCO's though. ~ pete

Recording in a small room at a school and the whole band wasn't happy with the timing of the kick. After a few takes the drummer had had enough and asked if he could overdub the kick later. So he played the track without the kick, then got on his hands and knees and operated the kick pedal with his hands for the overdub. His timing was much better.

In the early 70s we didn't have a drum kit so using a 2-track reel to reel we recorded a bongo at the fastest tape speed (I think it was 7.5 IPS) then played it back at the slowest speed ( I think 1 &7/8 IPS) and then made a real tape loop - it actually sounded like the gong drum that some of the guys use today....... awesome Doooommmm sound

Years ago I worked on a world music album and spent a few weeks in the solomans and other pacific islands recording trad. melodies and various sounds.In the Soloman's I recorded a coconut hitting the sand (had a local up the coconut tree throwing them down) that made it onto the album as a kick drum sample. THHHUD!

Have used a suitcase for a kick drum in the studio and Ian Collards band used to have the suitcase kick for live shows. The empty kero tin on a recording i did for Jay Atwell. For Jay's first CD ,Tim Cole, a great engineer when this sort of improv sounds are an option, came up with what was credited on the CD as the dugong, a large gong dipped into the bath after being hit.

I just experimented with recording hits on my accoustic guitar body and combining them to make a single hit. Spent about half an hour hitting different parts of the guitar. Recorded four tracks and then lined them up, mixed to taste, then imported into BFD and used the Midi to write the kick pattern.

Since it was a slow piece I didn't need velocity layers. (man that would be tedious though!)

The soundlock door at the sound research studio had a great 'sucking thwack' sound that I used a few times for various things but was used best in a dance score as a massive drum hit fed into the 480L silicon bead setting. Was awesome and the Arts Centre PA really really made the chest resonate.

Another was an ensemble of double bassists using 'col legno' and 'bartok pizz'. Amazing attack but still with tone became the centre of another dance rhythm.

mylesgm wrote:and can also be used as snare stuff or just cool rhythmic accents.

Cool. I tried to create a snare-ish sound from the guitar, but found it a little insipid and harsh sounding, I lazily resorted to a BFD2 tamborine instead...lol and heaven forbid a hand clap sample and cowbell later. lol.

mylesgm wrote:and can also be used as snare stuff or just cool rhythmic accents.

Cool. I tried to create a snare-ish sound from the guitar, but found it a little insipid and harsh sounding, I lazily resorted to a BFD2 tamborine instead...lol and heaven forbid a hand clap sample and cowbell later. lol.

mylesgm wrote:and can also be used as snare stuff or just cool rhythmic accents.

Cool. I tried to create a snare-ish sound from the guitar, but found it a little insipid and harsh sounding, I lazily resorted to a BFD2 tamborine instead...lol and heaven forbid a hand clap sample and cowbell later. lol.

In the days before supermarkets introduced plastic bages, we would bring home our groceries in cardboard boxes. A few of these boxes turned upside down (open end against the floor), played by hand, they would make a nice alternative kit, the larger box probably 2 1/2 feet square would be close to a kick drum sound and smaller boxes for toms. I recorded my first original with this setup using some Maruni mics, which looked like chinese copies of SM58's down onto a 4 track Ta@#$% 34. I recall it was a pretty awesome sound. Damn I wonder if I still have the cassette master!